East Norriton home contractor covers all the bases

Robert D. Irwin, second from left, and his associates, from left, Russel Park, Robert Irwin Jr. and Chris Laskey work on a house in Lower Merion, Friday, April 26, 2013. Photo by Adrianna Hoff/Times Herald Staff.

May is National Home Improvement Month, which gives homeowners the perfect opportunity to move all those projects around the house to center stage.

It also showers 31 days of some fruitful razzle-dazzle on a somewhat messy profession, and on veterans like Robert Irwin, who have developed a stellar reputation in an industry where reputations can be equally as messy.

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With 18 years of service under his utility belt, Irwin recently rebranded his business from Volt All Property Services (formerly Robert D. Irwin & Associates) to All Pros Property Services to reflect the fact that his expertise covers all the home improvement bases.

“We do everything, from the roof to the lawn, including snow removal,” said Irwin, taking a rare leisurely break recently at Panera Bread.

The Norristown native concentrated primarily on electrical repairs for his first decade in business but said he started branching out to keep his men busy during those inevitable days when there wasn’t quite enough work to go around.

“I knew I needed to be more diversified, and I wanted to keep my guys busy, so we started the snow removal,” Irwin said.

It didn’t take long before Irwin began fielding those tried and true questions from customers — “When can you start? When can you finish? How much will the job cost me?” — in more areas demanding his attention, as he earned his masters licenses in plumbing and roofing.

“You really have to be diversified today,” said Irwin, who now lends his skills to security installations, landscaping, HVAC, carpentry, painting and masonry. “I have customers who say, ‘You make it so easy for me,’ because they don’t have to call multiple people and get multiple estimates, give out multiple keys to their home. Besides, for a lot of service companies, it’s $125 just to show up at your door. I give free estimates and I’m spending an hour with a customer.”

Irwin believes in face-to-face pricing.

“A lot of guys do estimates on the phone,” he said. “I don’t know how they do that, but I like to see the job and do it all in person.”

The East Norriton resident said most of his remodeling jobs land him in the King of Prussia, Wayne and Main Line areas.

“I’m personally on every job, working crazy hours,” he said. “I don’t care if it takes longer. I just want the job done right.”

Thanks to some helpful nudging from Sebastian Richards of M.A.D.E. Marketing Group, who seriously tweaked Irwin’s website, and Irwin’s teenage son Robert, a social media guru with clients of his own, Irwin is in tune with au courant methods of keeping All Pros’ bottom line as enticing as one of its kitchen or bathroom remodels.

“They put the bug in my ear about the website and the whole rebranding,” Irwin said.

In a world where social media’s influence just might make a difference in cinching a lucrative sale, the younger Irwin recently tweeted, “We are celebrating National Home Improvement. Let us install a lifetime roof & receive a free attic fan.”

“Twitter gives Robert a chance to establish a little more trust from the beginning, before he even gets the phone call from a potential customer,” said Richards, a King of Prussia native. “Because of the high quality of the website and being active on Twitter, it doesn’t necessarily say a guy’s work will be great, but it gives a customer a little more confidence. People usually equate the aesthetics with more value. Of course,” he added, “it will still come back to a guy’s reputation above all.”

As Irwin pointed out, good old-fashioned word of mouth testimonials are his best form of advertising.

With Russell Park, who’s been with Irwin for nearly the entire ride, Mike Termine, Chris Laskey and Ronald Wolk on board, Irwin expects to maintain his longtime policy of starting a job within 72 hours of being hired.

“I always call back within 24 hours for an estimate,” he said. “Unless it’s an emergency, then they can call my cell number. That’s important to a customer, because when they call they want service now.”